


Yet Fate Saved Them No More

by Ygrain



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Fëanor's sons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29516151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ygrain/pseuds/Ygrain
Summary: The fates of the sons of Fëanor, drabble-length
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Yet Fate Saved Them No More

Once, you were halves of the same whole. 

There were the others, yes, but never quite like the two of you, together. 

Together, you clung to Maitimo's legs to topple him down. Together, you watched in awe as Father and Curufinwë created, and you left muddied handprints all over the house whenever you had ventured into mother's workroom. Together you snuggled in bed, listening to Macalaurë's lullaby. Together you teased Carnistir, together you learned the art of hunting from Tyelkormo. 

Always, always together. Of the same mind, of the same thought. Even the swords you raised together when Father said so, and bloodied your hands with the lives of kin. 

When did you start to drift apart? 

Was it when the swanships burned? Did one hand take the torch unquestioning, while the other paused ever so slightly? Or was it during the long years of peace, of riding through the vast woods, seemingly without a worry in the world? Did one tongue cover the guilt with haughtiness more easily then? Or did one heart beat more ferociously in the battles that came, and hardened in the defeats? 

You do not know, but you felt the drift when Tyelko spoke with venom and fire, and only one of you responded willing. You watched your twin, your half, from behind a wall that seemed to have grown out of nowhere, as if by some cruel trick, but you were too stunned to lend Maitimo your support, and so in the end, you all yielded. Over your brother's quiet shells one of you raged and one of you wept, to fall silent together, each of you alone. 

To the last fight, you also ride alone, one screaming aloud, urging to kill, one screaming inside, with horror. When the blade is coming down on innocents, you withhold his hand, and call him with the name of the one no longer there. You struggle with the stranger to reach your twin, and when a blade finds its home in your body, you do not even know whose hand was holding it, or who stabbed whom first. 

Yet at the moment when your life is waning along with your blood, you are whole again, cradling each other in your arms, and together, your spirits return to the West.

**Author's Note:**

> One of my major gripes with the Silmarillion is that many characters, such as Amrod and Amras, have very little to do in the story. However, I do think that Christopher Tolkien was right to abandon the abandoned draft of Amrod dying in the burning of the ships at Losgar, for multiple reasons. First, if you have seven brothers bound by a terrible oath, you do not kill one off early even before the oath can be brought into a full effect (and while the oath was undoubtedly tied to the First Kinslaying, it was Fëanor, not the oath as such, which compelled it). Next, Fëanor becoming a murderer of his own son, and being so cold about it, couldn't and shouldn't be just swept under the rug, there would need to be some consequences in the main story. Finally, tying to the previous: I fail to see the narrative purpose, other than assigning at least one twin some role, which is where I come in. If there are twins in a story of epic proportions and they both die, there are basically two ways to go about it: either keep them both on the same side and they die having each other's back, or pit them against each other. And since the Third Kinslaying caused a rift in the Fëanorions' ranks and some defended Elwing's people against their former lords, I believe the latter option is not entirely out of the realm of possibility (not to mention that it brings the tragedy of Fëanor's sons to yet another level).


End file.
